This semester I instituted “roll calls” in my online classes, one during each week before a drop deadline. My idea was to check on my students quickly, see who was paying attention, before looking more closely at who might need help or need to drop the class.
I did this in the form of a “Choice”, a tiny Moodle survey. Once they answer, they can see everyone’s answer.
The first one is just a check to make sure they’re receiving the announcements (called Latest News in Moodle) by email. The options are:
• Yes, I am!
• No, so I’ll check my spam filter and profile settings.
• No, but I don’t need them because I check Latest News every day.
For next semester, I will be adding: “No, but then I found them in my Promotions folder in Gmail, so I’ll change my settings.”
The second choice asks what their favorite part of the class is so far (see results here).
My third one, about 75% into the semester, said, “What might you recall when this class is over?” and I only gave four options, and they could only choose one. Here’s what happened, across four class sections:
- factual details from history 36
- the primary sources I found and posted 48
- how to write a historical thesis 30
- how to manage time while taking an online class 29
- not answered 5
I was surprised by how evenly these were spaced, but gratified that the searches they did themselves were likely to stick.
I have yet to find a way to do this in Canvas. They don’t seem to have open surveys…
Hi Lisa! Have you thought about using a Google form for the survey…? I had no love for the D2L Survey tool so I always just used Google Forms; for my purposes it worked. I’m guessing you could embed a Google Form in Canvas…? I haven’t tried that yet, but you can see my Canvas embedding adventures here:
Canvas.MythFolklore.net
As a summer project I’m having fun with it, but man, what a head-banging experience. I can’t imagine what it would be like to teach with that as the main classroom space. Everything just looks the same in there, although I’m trying to find ways to let the Internet breathe some life into it.
Very cool about time management being a take-away for so many of your students. True for my classes also. 🙂
Hi Laura! Yes, I could use a Google form indeed, but I think they would need a Google account to see who had made what choice on the survey, and that’s part of the fun. They’d see only an aggregate if they didn’t log in. And yes, one can use all the Google stuff inside Canvas, but again, they then have to have an account. Of course, many of them do, but still…I think I’m trying to see how much I can do within the system.
I notice on yours the same problem I have – any website that isn’t https (or that you can make that way) forces a link out of the system anyway. It’s like a straight-jacket that rejects you when you try to wrap it around yourself…